There's no vaccine against stupid.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) February 3, 2015
In the face of a growing measles outbreak, President Obama is urging parents to heed modern science and vaccinate their children…. “There is every reason to get vaccinated — there aren’t reasons to not,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News. Excerpts from the interview were aired Sunday night and Monday morning…. “I just want people to know the facts and science and the information,” the president said. “And the fact is that a major success of our civilization is our ability to prevent disease that in the past have devastated folks. And measles is preventable.”…. An epidemic of vaccination skepticism — largely based on unfounded and discredited anti-vaccine beliefs — has contributed to the growing public health crisis. Thanks to the widespread use of highly effective measles vaccination, the disease was effectively eliminated in the United States in 2000.
When the President has to speak up and ask parents to stop playing Russian Roulette with their children’s health, you have to know that something has gone horribly off the rails. There’s simply no credible reason to refuse to vaccinate a child, and the President shouldn’t have to weigh in on that fact. Back in the day- my day- if you weren’t vaccinated you didn’t go to school. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts. You had your child vaccinated or your child stayed home. It’s probably the single biggest reason that measles was declared virtually eliminated in 2000.
Unfortunately along came a doctor, Andrew Wakefield, who falsified data to show a link between vaccines and autism in a study he conducted. Wakefield, along with his study, became a cause celebre, the celebrity continuing long after his study was discredited as fabricated. The man’s a hero to the anti-vaccine movement…who evidently see no problem with pledging devotion to a liar. Former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy used her celebrity to become the de facto face of the growing anti-vaccine movement. That it’s a movement devoid of facts or scientific validity mattered not at all to McCarthy, who almost single-handedly launched the movement to prominence. Though she’s since disassociated herself from the anti-vaccine movement, it’s taken on a life of its own, endangering the health and well-being of children through continued dishonesty and propaganda.
This would be just plain silly if it wasn’t so ignorant and dangerous.
A couple weeks ago, the L.A.Times published an impassioned editorial in which they blamed the Disneyland measles out break on a movement that won’t let go of its “ignorant and self-absorbed rejection of science.”
The faction was the anti-vaccine movement — its holy text a retracted medical study, its high priest a disgraced British doctor named Andrew Wakefield. “The prospect of a new measles epidemic is disturbing,” the editorial said. “So is the knowledge that many ill-informed people accept a thoroughly discredited and retracted study in the journal Lancet that purported to associate vaccination with autism.”
Officials from Mexico to California are now scrambling to contain an outbreak that began at Disneyland but has now spilled across state lines, infecting dozens, many of whom never received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR).
The sad thing about this scenario is that it could (and should) have been prevented. Vaccines are not a perfect solution- nothing in this life is- but there’s a reason measles was declared virtually eradicated in 2000. Now parents are willfully ignoring the lessons of history, believing they have the right to cherry-pick which science they’ll believe. I know people with high school educations convinced that scientists aren’t telling the truth, and that they and ONLY they know what’s best for their children. The arrogance and ignorance behind that belief is stunning…and yet an ever-growing number of parents have decided (based on ZERO facts or scientific evidence) that vaccines do more harm than good.
Years later, Wakefield’s work is still being championed as groundbreaking evidence of the risks of vaccines. The fact that the one study he was known for was based on fabricated data seems to matter not at all. This makes sense, given that many of his supporters harbor a deep distrust of government (or ANY institution).
They often suggest that vaccination is motivated by profit and is an infringement of personal liberty and choice; vaccines violate the laws and nature and are temporary or ineffective; and good hygiene is sufficient to protect against disease.
Sit with that for a moment. “Good hygiene” is sufficient to protect children against disease. Why not just bleed them with leeches? Or protect them with nothing but prayer? To actually believe something so mind-numbingly daft should arguably disqualify one from raising children. If you cannot see your way clear to vaccinate your children, if you’re more willing to believe propaganda and conspiracy theories than to take reasonable, scientifically sound steps to keep your children healthy, I’d submit it’s time to reconsider your fitness as a parent.
2014 was a record year for measles in the U.S.- something for which there can be no credible justification. This year could find this country in the grips of a much wider outbreak unless steps are taken (vaccination) to get the problem under control. It’s not helping that politicians like Chris Christie and Rand Paul are seeing this problem as an opportunity to score some political points . Christie has said that vaccinating children should be a matter of parental choice. Paul is claiming vaccines can cause “profound mental disorders.” It seems Paul is Patient Zero.
Uh…no. It’s not, nor should it be, a matter of choice…and there’s no scientific credible evidence- none, zero, zip, nada- that they cause any sort of “mental disorders.” As a medical professional (an ophthalmologist), Rand’s claim is irresponsible, and he should know better. Vaccination is a social obligation, and politicians pandering to the anti-vaccine movement can (and will) only make things worse.
This didn’t have to happen, and it doesn’t have to continue…but parents must look beyond their narrow self-interest and let go of their “ignorant and self-absorbed rejection of science.”
Like that’s going to happen.
